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Honest Trailer
Honest Trailers '''is a weekly comedy series that satirizes and parodies movies and TV show trailers. '''Honest Trailers are short comedy videos, usually 3-7 minutes in length, that poke fun at movies and TV shows. They combine the visual style of movie trailers with parody voiceover to humorously reveal the true nature of a movie or show. The three-time Emmy-nominated series is produced by the [[Screen Junkies|'Screen Junkies']] YouTube channel. The flagship series was created in 2012 by [[Andy Signore|'Andy Signore']] and Brett Weiner. '''More than 250 Honest Trailers have been produced. The current narrator for '''Honest Trailers is[[ Jon Bailey| Jon Bailey]], who plays a character called Epic Voice Guy. Despite appearances, Honest Trailers are not the product of one amateur guy living in his mother's basement. There's an entire professional company behind them. They have fancy offices in Beverly Hills and everything. Honest. Honest Trailers are written by a team of writers, usually 3-6 people. Dozens of people have received writing credits on Honest Trailers since 2012. The current team of writers consists of [[Spencer Gilbert|'Spencer Gilbert']],' Joe Starr' and [[Dan Murrell|'Dan Murrell']]. Spencer and Dan have contributed to around 250 Honest Trailers each, while Joe has contributed to over half. [[List of Honest Trailers|'Click here for the full list of Honest Trailers.']] Creation As explained in this Metro article, Honest Trailers was originally intended to be a one-off joke to mock the over-hyped 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. After that video's success, 'Screen Junkies chose to make more videos including 'Titanic, Twilight and Transformers. Some people presumed further Honest Trailers wouldn't be successful, as the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace was a very specific cultural phenomenon. However the next batch of Honest Trailers achieved even more views, resulting in the continuation of the series to over 250 episodes and the creation of a spin-off series using the same format: Honest Game Trailers, produced by YouTube channel Smosh Games. Style Be honest, as in, NOT sarcastic...We have to call it like it is '~ Spencer GilbertGilbert, S. [https://www.indiewire.com/2014/10/heres-what-goes-into-making-an-honest-trailer-69252/ "Here’s What Goes into Making an Honest Trailer,"]' '''IndieWire, October 9, 2014 The series mimics the style of trailers popular in the 1980s and 1990s, known as the '"In a world..."' style of trailers, which was popularized by voice actors '''Don LaFontain' and Hal Douglas. The subjects of the videos are primarily blockbuster films and popular short run TV series. The goal of the series is not to criticize every single film. Instead, the goal is to cut through advertising hype and to humorously - but accurately - portray the film's subject matter, style and quality. A common misconception is that the series is ubiquitously negative about all films. However, good films are praised, often extravagantly, for example: [[Honest Trailer - Captain America: The Winter Soldier|'''''Captain America: The Winter Soldier]],'' [[Honest Trailer - Die Hard|Die Hard]],' Mad Max: Fury Road 'and 'The Jungle Book (2016)'.'' The writers try to avoid describing the plot in detail or nitpicking details only a super-fan would understand. Rather, they try to summarize how a typical audience member might interpret a film. Head writer Spencer Gilbert explains the principle like this: "Keep it simple. We could nitpick the movie to death, pointing out every plot hole and continuity error, but it’s our firm belief that no one cares or even remembers details like that for these big dumb action flicks. The trailer is there to sum up the general moviegoing experience, not take the viewer through it step-by-step." The series is known for humorously pointing outing plot-holes, gaps in logic, mistakes and for poking fun at the cast and crew. However, an Honest Trailer also functions as a mini-review of the film. The voiceover provides commentary on the characters, story, action, performances, direction, score, etc. For example, The Social Network Honest Trailer refers to the film's "snappy dialogue, slick directing and great performances." In addition, Honest Trailers often refer to news stories, behind-the-scene drama and fan controversies that relate the to film. For example, the Justice League Honest Trailer referred to director Zack Snyder's personal tragedy, in addition to the corporate-bonus-related reasons why the release date was not changed. When making Honest Trailers for older films, the writers also draw on historical sources and refer to cultural shifts, for example the Honest Trailer for Peter Pan (1953) discusses and provides examples of sexism and racism from the era it was created in. The writers may also incorporate references to a film's ephemera and ancillary material, including sequels, TV spin-offs, toys, merchandising or advertising material. For example: the Honest Trailer for The LEGO Movie ''shows LEGO tie-in toys; the Honest Trailer for ''Ghostbusters 2 showed clips from the 1970s TV show, the Honest Trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle shows an advert Jack Black made as a child; the Honest Trailer for Shrek shows some behind-the-scene animation blunders; the Honest Trailer for Showgirls shows a scene from the film with isolated audio. The purpose of using this material is sometimes to get a laugh, but sometimes to prove a point. Honest Trailers are written from a subjective perspective - that of the fictional narrator Epic Voice Guy. '''The writers incorporate '''Epic Voice Guy's (fictional) personal history and viewpoint into the videos. For example, kids movies are narrated from the perspective of a Dad taking his kid to the theater, see Finding Nemo as a an example. Another example is the Batman: The Killing Joke Honest Trailer, which took the angle of a long-time fan of the comic book, not an objective viewer. Likewise, the Hook Honest Trailer took the angle of a grown adult who had seen the film as a child - the narrator reflected that the movie was much darker and slower than he remembered as a kid. Similarly, in the Fifty Shades Darker Honest Trailer, the narrator complained about the bland sex scenes because he "has a dull marriage." Additionally, Honest Trailers sometimes critique more than just the film; they also critique fandom, nostalgia, and the cultural significance of some films. For example, the dueling narrators in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Honest Trailer illustrated how polarized the Star Wars fandom had become. Likewise, the Ghostbusters reboot' Honest Trailer called out online harassment. The two Honest Teasers that Screen Junkies have produced use a parody "trailer reaction" format to satirize fan culture more directly. Over the years, Honest Trailers have developed several running jokes, including 'stares', 'bewbs,' parody song lyrics and the intermittent appearance of a [[The Alan raptor|'velociraptor that shouts Alan!']] Structure and Language and writer Jason Pickar at their desks.]] Honest Trailers typically start with the broadest comments about a film's cultural context, genre or the director's career, and then get progressively more specific. In the Honest Trailer Commentary for 'Memento, head writer Spencer Gilbert discusses this structure in more detail. The narration describes aspects of the film and its context, for example, The Emmys:' "''In a world where every network spends millions to get the attention of Emmy voters..." The narration also speaks directly to the viewer and gives simple commands attached to descriptions of the characters and settings. Examples: 'Pitch Perfect': "Meet Beca, a snarky, pretentious wannabe DJ who hates her dad for paying her tuition..." Warcraft: '"'Journey 'to the land of Azeroth, where the kingdom of Stormwind is beset by orcs from the planet Draenor..." ''The most commonly used commands in the Honest Trailers series ''are ''"Suit up..." "Ride along..." and "Strap in..." The narrator may make several evaluative observations in a row, before simply reacting to something on screen or sharing a funny fact about himself. For example, during the Ready Player One Honest Trailer, he interrupts his description of the film to scream in horror at a character's faint birthmark, and to gripe about his mother. In the Honest Trailer Commentary for the Honest Trailer Written by a Robot, head writer Spencer Gilbert describes this observation-reaction format as the rhythm of an Honest Trailer. Honest Trailers often use detailed description and poetic language, especially similes and metaphors. For example, the Honest Trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight describes the action as "like two radio shacks doing Karma Sutra in a hurricane," while the Honest Trailer for Aliens describes the film's aesthetic style as "like a sex toy factory made out of scorpions." '' Starring Section Honest Trailer, the starring name for Honey Lemon was 'April O'Nerd,' a reference to her looking like the TMNT character April O'Neil, only nerdier.]] Each trailer ends with a 'starring' section where the actors are given silly names - often a combination of puns and pop culture references, especially references to other fictional characters, song lyrics, old TV shows and the actors' family members. For example, the 'Catching Fire' Honest Trailer refers to Liam Hemsworth as "Baby 'Thor"''' '''and Donald Sutherland as "Jack Bauer's Dad." The starring sections may also list common phrases, tropes and cinematic techniques used in the film or TV show. For example, the starring section of the [[Honest Trailer - Sherlock (BBC)|Sherlock]] Honest Trailer showed montages of the characters texting, Moriarty licking stuff, Sherlock sniffing things, and Sherlock saying the word "obviously." The 'starring' text is designed to mimic the text in the original movie. See picture from the '''Big Hero 6 Honest Trailer as example. Honest Title Honest Trailer was 'Swamp Thing' a reference to Shrek's natural habitat and the DC comics character, Swamp Thing.]] The videos culminates in an alternate title that aims to summarize the film or point out its most memorable feature. For example, the honest title for [[Honest Trailer - Cars & Cars 2|'Cars']]' was ''Money,' in reference to the film's merchandising profitability. The Honest Title for '[[Honest Trailer - Jurassic Park 3|Jurassic Park 3]] 'was ''The One Where a Dinosaur Says Alan, in reference to the fact that the film is so lackluster that it is not known for any other feature. The titles are designed to mimic the visual style of the original movies. See picture from the [[Honest Trailer - Shrek|'Shrek']] Honest Trailer as example. The titles are designed by UK motion graphics artist Robert Holtby. Narration Jon Bailey's voice-over persona is referred to as Epic Voice Guy and has become a character in his own right, and he even has fictional daughter who appears in the Honest Trailer for Superman (1978). Epic Voice Guy '''occasional shares personal information about his fictional family and upbringing for comedic effect. For example, he has revealed that he once owned a toy called Mr Squizzleworth, as a child he unexpectedly discovered his parent's kink dungeon and he once got so drunk in Brazil he woke up in Guatemala. Bailey occasionally changes the style of narration to suit different genres, including when he imitated the voice from the actual ''Harry Potter'' trailers, which lead to a flood angry comments from people who thought Jon had been replaced. Previous narrators such as [[Gannon Nickell|'''Gannon Nickell]] have returned to Honest Trailers for special occasions, for example to provide contrasting narration for the highly divisive Star Wars films [[Honest Trailer - Star Wars: The Force Awakens|''The Force Awakens]] and [[Honest Trailer - Star Wars: The Last Jedi|The Last Jedi]]. Now that 'The Last Jedi' has been briefly mentioned on this page, please feel free to ignore everything else written here and talk about that at length in the comment section below. Production Film selection as an example.]] The Screen Junkies team works out a schedule of Honest Trailers months in advance. Although each trailer begins with screenshots of viewer comments requesting the film the series should tackle next, these comments are often too recent to have influenced the production schedule. Nonetheless, viewer preferences are taken into account. For example, Screen Junkies often run Twitter polls to determine which film to make an Honest Trailer on; 'Baby Driver 'was selected via a Twitter poll.' 'Additionally, they usually run '''Fan Appreciation Month' in January, where fans get to vote of films from a drop-down menu of options. This often leads to unusual Honest Trailer choices, for example mother! ''In 2018, Screen Junkies ran a fundraiser for the charity '''Women in Film where they offered one $10,000 donor the reward of picking any Honest Trailer they wanted. A generous sadist donated $10k and requested an Honest Trailer for all 55 years of '''''Doctor Who. Screen Junkies typically make Honest Trailers for blockbuster movies as soon as they are available on digital/Blu-ray. When they pick older movies, they usually relate to a movie being released in theaters that week. For example, the Honest Trailer for Deep Blue Sea (1999) was released to coincide with the theatrical release of the similarly shark-themed movie, The Meg. ''The writers have stated they are given more creativity license for one out of every four Honest Trailers, which often results in more eclectic choices, such as [[Honest Trailer - Showgirls|''Showgirls]]. Writing, recording and editing records his narration from a recording booth in his home in Tennessee. A Screen Junkies producer is on the phone with him during the recording session, giving him directions.]] Well-made movies are fun to watch but difficult to Honest Trailer-ize, but the opposite is true of bad movies. '~ Spencer Gilbert'' Honest Trailers typically take about a week to make. The team of writers begin by watching the film or show on their own and taking notes. Over the years, the size of this team has varied from 3-6 people. The writers come together for a group writing session where they discuss their observations and notes. Head writer '''Spencer Gilbert has the job of incorporating the various notes into a cohesive draft script. The script goes through various rewrites and versions. Very often the writers don't remember who came up with what line. The draft includes specific references to the exact clips from the movie the writers want included to punctuate their jokes, usually with attached time code to make the task of editing easier. Spencer Gilbert explains the create process: "It’s still difficult to avoid the deep well of sarcasm that lives at the core of every comedy writer, but the series is always better for it. While punching up the first draft in the writers room, an uncomfortable question arises: since this is the 3rd “Transformers” trailer we’ve done, are the jokes all too similar to each other? Are we starting to repeat ourselves? The answer is a begrudging ‘yes.'" The series often use twists on the Honest Trailers formula to avoid repetition, including: Transformers: Age of Extinction in which the last third was narrated in Chinese in a meta reference to the film pandering to the Chinese market; Memento in which the segments of the Honest Trailer were played backwards in reference to the film's backwards structure; and A Quiet Place in which the video was translated into ASL. Jon Bailey records his narration from the booth in his house, under the direction of one of the Screen Junkies producers. The script Jon receives contains lots of alternate lines in order to make it easier for the production team to swap out jokes that aren't working. In the early days, Bailey took up to an hour to record his narration, but has got that time down to around 20 minutes. , pictured here in his edit-bay. In 2018, the series has two editors, TJ Nordaker and Kevin Williamsen.]] The editing team combine the narration, music, clips from the movie, specially created title sequences, and any other still images. If the film has been released on digital or Blu-ray for a while, the editors use clips from the full movie. However, as shown in the "The Making of Honest Trailers" video, sometimes the film is released the day before the video is due to be uploaded. In the case of Star Trek Into Darkness (as shown in the behind-the-scenes video), editor 'Dan Murrell initially used temp footage. When the full movie became legally available, he was required to stay up all night to edit the video in order to meet the deadline. The team reviews the video, cuts jokes or even re-records parts of the narration if necessary - and if time permits. Publication Honest Trailer videos are uploaded to Screen Junkies main channel on YouTube on Tuesdays at 10am PST. The first eight Honest Trailers were uploaded monthly. From October 2012 - April 2014, Honest Trailers were uploaded every two weeks (roughly). From summer 2014 on, Honest Trailers were released every week. On rare occasions, two Honest Trailers have been released on the same date, for example the Honest Trailers for 'Superman (1978) and Batman (1989) were released in the same day to coincide with the theatrical release of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and formed a popularity contest. Honest Trailers are always uploaded on Tuesday - except if other days of the week hold special significance, as was the case with the ''Back to the Future'' Honest Trailer which was released to coincide exactly with "Back to the Future Day" on Wednesday October 21, 2015. Popularity Honest Trailers is the highest-viewed series on the Screen Junkies channel by a wide margin. In 2018, a typical Honest Trailer reaches around 1 million YouTube views in its first week of release, but Honest Trailers for extremely popular movies often exceed that number. For example, the highest-viewed Honest Trailer for 2018 is Black Panther, which has over 6.4 million views. Honest Trailers are also uploaded to Facebook and attract a significant amount of views on that platform. The highest viewed Honest Trailers of all time are [[Honest Trailer - Titanic|''Titanic]],' Game of Thrones Vol. 1 'and' Frozen'. The popularity of Honest Trailers has declined somewhat in line with changes to the YouTube algorithm and increased competition in the digital space. Tone and Voice Early Days (2012 - early 2013) .]] The tone and voice of Honest Trailers has evolved dramatically over the years. When the series was first created, the series was designed to appeal primarily to young men and the first two dozen Honest Trailers are markedly different from the rest of the series. Early Honest Trailers used harsher criticisms and more provocative "dude bro" humor. Early Honest Trailers often included references to breasts and made some comments that were labelled sexist and homophobic. For example: the 'Avatar' Honest Trailer (episode 5) include the line, ''"Meet Neytiri, but more importantly, meet her side bloobs"; ''the 'Paranormal Activity' Honest Trailer (episode 10) said ''"You’ll be constantly asking is she hot or is it just her big boobs?"; the Prometheus Honest Trailer (episode 9) refers to Noomi Rapace as "Noomi Rapeface"; The Notebook Honest Trailer (episode 19) referred to "nagging girlfriends" that will make you watch the film; the Les Miserables Honest Trailer (episode 21) implied the only reason a man would watch a musical was to get his girlfriend to "appreciate" him; The Avengers Honest Trailer (episode 8) claimed women don't like superhero films; the Honest Trailer for [[Honest Trailer - Twilight|''Twilight]] (episode 2) labelled Twilight fans as girls too stupid for [[Honest Trailer - Hunger Games|The Hunger Games]]; the 'Skyfall' Honest Trailer (episode 18) claimed that the villain "turned Bond gay." In response to the 'Skyfall' Honest Trailer, MTV wrote an extensive article rebutting every point made in the Honest Trailer and labelled it "homophobic." In that same article, MTV called the series a "declaration of war against fun." They wrote that the Honest Trailers series was "originally intended to live up to its title and present previews in a way that more accurately represented the actual films. Somewhere along the way, 'Honest Trailers' has devolved into a series of nit-picky video essays that seemingly hates every aspect of the movies." (Kevin P. Sullivan, February 6, 2013, MTV). In various Honest Trailer Commentaries'', the writers have said they think they were too mean in the earlier Honest Trailers. Later Years (late-2013 and on) was 'Captain America: He's Cool Now.' The positive slant on this film illustrates the series' gentler tone in 2014.]] The tone of Honest Trailers evolved over time and became more focused on calling out flaws in a good-natured way. The critical perception of the series began to change around the release of the incredibly positive Captain America: The Winter Soldier Honest Trailer (episode 70). Directors The Russo Brothers, said they were fans of the series and used it as inspiration to make the film better. In response, CinemaBlend wrote: While commenters have often decried Honest Trailers for accused cynicism or buzz-killing, it's clear the videos have proved a true source of inspiration for one of the summer's best films. And really, isn't that the point of this kind of dedicated nitpicking? To demand movies that allow us to suspend disbelief and experience an incredible ride? I used to think that at their best Honest Trailers provide some catharsis for movie fans who've been heartbroken over a film that didn't dare live up to their expectations. But it seems that at their best, Honest Trailers can actually make for better movies. Even Marvel movies. ''(Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' Honest Trailer (episode 70) - Kristy Puchko, 20 August, 2014, CinemaBlend) Soon after, the surprisingly positive The Fault in Our Stars Honest Trailer (episode 73) cemented Screen Junkies reputation as being playful and fair in their criticisms. At the time, Bustle wrote: It's their job to poke fun, and so they do, but there's a distinct lack of venom. In fact, there's something almost akin to respect? And there's definitely a lot of enjoyment. Since when do Honest Trailers lead into their roasting with the caveat that they're talking about "well-rounded characters?" ''(The Fault in Our Stars'' Honest Trailer (episode 73) - Alanna Bennett, September 25, 2014, Bustle) By 2018, Honest Trailers was known for its good-humored approach to film criticism and was often contrasted with the different, meaner approach taken by YouTube channel CinemaSins: While we’re supremely against all the nonsense that CinemaSins puts forth in their recurring video series, we appreciate what the folks at Screen Junkies put forth every week with their Honest Trailers. At the very least, they’re clever in their humorous observations about critiques, plot holes and we love the new title they give to all their targets.(Ethan Anderton, Slash Film, May 2nd, 2018) Awards Emmys Honest Trailers has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' three times. It is the only series to have been nominated three times and every year since the award was introduced. * 2018 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr '''(Producers) * '''2017 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Andy Signore, Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Michael Bolton, Christina Kline (Producers) * 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Andy Signore (executive producer), Barry Blumberg (executive producer), Dan Murrell (producer), Spencer Gilbert (producer) Streamys * 2018 The Streamy Awards: TJ Nordaker and Kevin Williamsen - 'Best Editing' '''(Pending) * '''2017 The Streamy Awards: Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell & Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Nominee) * 2017 The Streamy Awards: Honest Trailers &''' Ryan Reynolds '- ''Best Collaboration'' for the [[Honest Trailer - Logan|Logan]] Honest Trailer. (Winner) * '''2016' The Streamy Awards: [[Spencer Gilbert|'''Spencer Gilbert]],' Joe Starr, Dan Murrell '& Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Winner) * '''2015 The Streamy Awards: Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell,' Erica Russell '& Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Nominee) International Academy of Web Television Awards * 2015 IAWTV: 'Best Comedy Series' '(Winner - tied with "The Real Housewives of Horror") Honest Trailers Commentaries .]] Each Honest Trailer is accompanied by an ''Honest Trailer Commentary' video where the writers dissect their jokes and offer additional thoughts and failed jokes that didn't make it into the actual trailer. These videos have been posted to YouTube on the ScreenJunkies News channel since mid-2017. Earlier videos used to be available to Screen Junkies Plus subscribers, but are no longer available since the website/app was discontinued in 2018. Screen Junkies currently don't have any way to release their old content. Watch the Honest Trailers Commentaries Playlist on YouTube References Category:Honest Trailers Category:Screen Junkies Category:Web series Category:Comedy Category:Emmy nominated Category:2010s Category:Youtubers Category:Parody Category:Satire